By M. Abubakar
Published September 09, 2026
President Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Welles Crowther, the 9/11 volunteer firefighter and equities trader known as the “Man in the Red Bandana,” at a White House event on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks. Crowther’s mother, Alison, and his sister, Paige, accepted the award.
Crowther, 24, wore a red bandana over his nose and mouth as he guided survivors from the South Tower’s 78th-floor sky lobby, according to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. He made three trips to the lobby, saving as many people as he could before the building collapsed.
The event on the White House Ellipse honoured FDNY first responders and displayed a steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower, brought to Washington by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation as part of its Steel Across America initiative. Reports differ on the beam’s size, with one giving 16,900 pounds and another 21 feet.
Trump called the battered steel a reminder that America is blessed with a strength no fire can consume. He also paid tribute to Jeffrey Palazzo, a New York City firefighter, and to Crowther.
Sources: ABC News, Boston Globe.
